Carnegie Mellon reports decrease in Black and white enrollment after race admissions ruling

The portion of Black and other students of color declined in this fall’s entering class at Carnegie Mellon University, following the first recruiting cycle since the U.S. Supreme Court barred consideration of race in admissions.

The share of new students who are white also slipped, but Asian student enrollment rose, according to newly released 2024-25 data from the university.

“The decline is similar to that reported by other highly selective institutions following the SCOTUS decision on affirmative action in June 2023,” Carnegie Mellon said in a statement shared Wednesday.

It said Black and African American enrollment declined by 2.3 percentage points, Hispanic and Latino enrollment declined by 5.5 percentage points, White student enrollment decreased by 0.4.

Meanwhile, Asian American enrollment increased by 4.0 percentage points and students choosing not to report race and ethnicity increased by 2.0 percentage points.

“Notably, about 15% of those who did not disclose race and ethnicity information, chose to do so after enrolling,” the school said in its written statement. “This data follows trends reported by many other highly selective institutions.”

Kris Wong Davis, vice provost for enrollment management and dean of admission, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Carnegie Mellon’s statement, which was not attributed to any specific administrator, said: “Efforts are already in progress to enhance outreach and recruitment across all populations, aiming to build a robust application pool that supports the enrollment goals for Carnegie Mellon’s future classes.”

Immediately after the Supreme Court decision in June 2023, Carnegie Mellon and other schools across the region vowed to find ways to both follow the changed law and keep their campuses diverse.

The statement did not indicate if the share of entering students who are children or family of alumni had changed. Carnegie Mellon once considered whether a student applicant was related to alumni to be an “important” or “considered” factor in admissions decisions.

But it told TribLive last year that it no longer considers family relation of such “legacies” in admission decisions. A number of other schools have also eliminated legacy admissions.

Elsewhere around the country, a debate continues over if those legacy programs, seen as disadvantaging under-represented groups, should be allowed to continue if, by law, race can no longer be considered.

Though a number of leading institutions reported declines in under-represented groups this fall, that has not been the experience everywhere.

For instance, Temple University is reporting that 29.6% of Temple’s Class of 2028 are Black students totaling 1,456, up by 71% from last year. Hispanic Hispanic/Latinx/Latine students saw gains as did Asian/Pacific Islander.

“For the fifth straight year, Temple has welcomed a record percentage of students of color, and this also marks the third straight year that more than 50% of Temple’s first-year class are students of color,” the school said on its website.

Carnegie Mellon University received nearly 34,000 applications from students for fall 2024 admission. It yielded an incoming class of 1,807 full-time students, including students who deferred their admission from previous academic terms, officials said.

“Demand for a CMU degree remains high and quality academic experience remains consistent among our incoming students,” the school’s statement said.

In 1978, a landmark Supreme Court decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke held that affirmative action was permissible by colleges. In the 45 years since, use of race in admissions decisions had survived various Supreme Court challenges, though schools’ discretion in how it can be applied had narrowed.

The end of race in admission decisions involved a 2014 case against two elite institutions: Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

Harvard is the nation’s oldest private college, and UNC is the nation’s oldest public institution. The cases against both were brought in 2014 by Students for Fair Admissions, an advocacy and legal group based in Arlington, Va., that sought to remove race and ethnicity from college admissions.